Then and Now: Yonge/Dundas and area

[Mustapha]

Sep 15 additions

I actually need to get about 50 yards behind the perspective of the modern picture but then, I'd be inside the New City Hall and you wouldn't have a picture.

Louisa Street is no more. I took the modern view from a block south looking west from Albert Street. About 50 yards south I guess. If you stand at what was Louisa Street and look west you will see only the east wall of the New City hall.

 

[CityPlaceN1]

Thanks for the shots. For every good building lost there's a bunch that suck.

 

[W. K. Lis]

I seem to notice that the streetcar tracks are starting to poke through the asphalt in the above photo.

 

[Blovertis]

Your best series yet, Mustapha -- you seem to be putting more effort into finding the precise vantage point from which the "then" photo was taken.

These photos really give you a good idea of what was lost when Nathan Phillips Square was built -- not that much from the look of it.

For some reason, I was also struck by that movie poster for "The Eye of God" on the Shuter shot. Pretty great graphics for 1916 and what was then a new and somewhat disreputable medium.

 

[Mustapha]

These photos really give you a good idea of what was lost when Nathan Phillips Square was built -- not that much from the look of it.

.

Thanks Blovertis, W. K. Lis, and CityPlaceN1, we do our best.

Nathan Philips Square... the removal of the Registry Building may or may not occasion a sense of loss but about 50% of a thriving Chinatown was also removed. That said, the Chinatown moved west and thrived again. Elizabeth Street in its late 1950s Chinatown heyday - what I can remember of it walking its length holding my grandfathers hand - was quite the place. It was perpetually choked with cars and dating couples of my fathers generation and the neon signage to my young eyes was wondrous. Chinese at that time meant you were from Guangdong province - no Chinese from Hong Kong or other Chinese Diaspora. Toisanese - a less sing-song version of Cantonese was the only spoken Chinese. The Chinese at this time were families who laundered, opened restaurants or produce stores, and were at the peak of immigrant respectability for the times.

The buildings were quite run down though.

 

[Mustapha]

Sep 22 additions

Dundas Square looking north up Yonge

Canon Theatre, or whatever it's called this year.

Albert and James.

King and Bay southeast.

Later on:

Now

King and Bay southwest.

King and Bay northwest.

King and Bay northeast.

 

[smuncky]

never seeen the old photos of king/bay. what a change. thanks for these!

 

[markel]

Does anyone have any old pics of the "Elephant & Castle" building located right at Yonge and Gerrard? Even the site of the Delta Chelsea hotel?

 

[adma]

Interesting how the Rockwell Jeans car snuck into one of those photos--ah, you can't exterminate the old spirit of Dundas Square.

Also, the TTCish font of that DETOUR sign.

 

[syn]

I think I might prefer King & Bay with the old buildings.

 

[Mustapha]

Does anyone have any old pics of the "Elephant & Castle" building located right at Yonge and Gerrard? Even the site of the Delta Chelsea hotel?

here ya go

where more can be found.

http://gencat.eloquent-systems.com/...=6000_11222_11222&MenuName=Image search scree

 

[Solaris]

stumbled across this thread ... there are some great things here ~ thanks for the great job in pairing up the 'then + now' images Mustapha !

 

[egotrippin]

I think I might prefer King & Bay with the old buildings.

Yeah, and what's worse is they could've stayed even with what's built. With the exception of the northeast corner (Scotia), nothing worthwhile is in the original buildings' places. Empty space on the southeast corner, a useless one-story building on the southwest corner, and an oversized density-wasting podium on the northwest.

 

[adma]

a useless one-story building on the southwest corner,

Mies, useless?

Though I get everyone's drift; there *is* a life-leaching quality about all this contemporary architectural ostentation, particularly compared to what preceded it...

 

[junctionist]

I'd say the TD Centre's banking pavilion looks great, especially at night, and brings a welcoming scale to the imposing black towers. The functional "waffle grid" design of the ceiling is stunning. It means that there are no columns inside. It displays that spirit of progress and improvement, of rejecting tradition and ornamentation. No, this centre would have looked a lot weaker if the old building had stayed. The modernist values just wouldn't have been that convincing.

The large podium to First Canadian Place is an improvement for that corner as well. It allowed for a wider sidewalk, a grand scale for the lobby and the premium retail.

The only thing regrettable is what happened on the southeast corner, which is now empty, and exposes that wall of Commerce Court North, which is rather stark, yet not deliberately stark. It looks like something is missing.